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Django Django covered The Monkees' "The Porpoise Song" for 'Late Night Tales' series and #RSD14 7" (stream it)

by Bill Pearis

Django Django @ MHOW 2013 (more by David Andrako)
Django Django

It’s been two years since Django Django released their terrifically inventive debut album. The band are busy working on its follow-up but have dropped a cover of The Monkees’ “The Porpoise Song” for their turn at the popular Late Night Tales mix series. The organ-drenched original, which was written by Carol King, is from the Head soundtrack, and is used in the film’s opening scene where they all jump off a bridge, committing literal career suicide. If you’ve never seen Head, it remains a deeply weird, uncommercial film and required viewing. Django Django’s version hews close to the original for the first half of the song, before pulling it fully into their own rhythmic territory in the latter half. You can stream it below.

In addition to its inclusion on Late Night Tales (out May 11), DD’s “The Porpoise Song” will be released as a 7″ for Record Store Day, which is Saturday (4/19) if you didn’t realize. The b-side is a spoken word piece by Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch (!). Full tracklist for Django Django’s edition of Late Night Tales, plus “The Porpoise Song” cover and streams of The Monkees original and Carol King’s demo, below…


The Monkees – “Porpoise Song”

“Porpoise Song” (Carol King demo)

Late Night Tales – Django Django tracklist
1. “The Tennessee Toad” Leo Kottke
2. “Game Love” Gulp
3. “Nautilus” Bob James
4. “Inner City Blues” James Last
5. “Bone” Map Of Africa
6. “Get Closer” Seals & Crofts
7. “Floe” Philip Glass
8. “To Claudia On Thursday” The Millennium
9. “Surf’s Up” The Beach Boys
10. “Carry Me Home” Primal Scream
11. “Man Next Door” Massive Attack
12. “Bugg’n” TNGHT
13. “Slum Beautiful” Outkast
14. “Why Can’t We Live Together” Timmy Thomas
15. “Gabriel” Roy Davis, Jnr.
16. “Coconut” Harry Nilsson
17. “Poor Moon” Canned Heat
18. “Bass Drums” Ramadanman
19. “Future Directions” Rick Miller
20. “Porpoise Song (Exclusive Monkees Cover Version)” Django Django
21. “Flat of Angles Part 4” Benedict Cumberbatch